Canada- 6 people missing, 9 injured, in blaze that destroyed heritage building in Old Montreal, 16 March 2023 *possible arson*

Google translate

"(Montreal) A second body was extricated Tuesday from the rubble of the building ravaged by flames last week in Old Montreal.

The sad discovery was made by the technical rescue group of the Montreal Fire Safety Service (SIM), which was continuing its search for the building "based on sketches of the building and the information collected", said a spokesperson. of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), late Tuesday afternoon.

The body was entrusted to the Laboratory of Forensic Sciences and Forensic Medicine (LSJML) which will attempt to identify it. Neither the age nor the sex of this victim are known at this time."

Fire in Old Montreal A second body extricated from the rubble

 
Katelyn Thomas
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This handout photo shows a room with no window in the building at the corner of Place d'Youville and du Port St. that was destroyed by fire last week.

''Several reviews on a since-deleted Airbnb listing show travellers felt the unit’s description was misleading because it was not made clear the one-bedroom loft had no windows at all. Among other things, it was described by the host as a “typical Old Montreal loft” that was “renovated to host travellers.”


''One person who booked the unit in 2021 left a review saying she contacted Airbnb to cancel her reservation “after trying to stay in the loft,” opting for a hotel instead.

“No windows, no emergency exit/access to outside in case of a fire,” she wrote.''

''In the days since the fire occurred, friends and families have identified people who went missing, including a neuroscientist from San Diego, An Wu; Montreal photographer and filmmaker Camille Maheux; and 18-year-old Charlie Lacroix from the Montreal suburb of Terrebonne, whose father said she rented an Airbnb in the building with a friend. Montreal city councillor Abdelhaq Sari said one of the missing people is an 18-year-old man''.
 
''The National Gallery of Canada lists several of the photographer and filmmaker's works as part of its collection.
''Maheux, 76, was also known as a cinematographer and videographer. She once described herself as an “image technician,” and said that “visual expression interests me most. I always sought to spill beyond the border of the singular image to combine different elements in the creation of a kind of narrative that resembles writing or cinematic storytelling.”

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Montreal police have identified Camille Maheux as one of the victims of a fire that destroyed an old building in the historic neighbourhood of Old Montreal. (Submitted by Petunia Alves)

''MONTREAL - Police have identified one of two confirmed victims of a fatal fire in Old Montreal, as the search continues for at least five others who remain missing.

Montreal police Insp. David Shane identified the victim as 76-year-old Camille Maheux.

Shane told reporters at the scene today that Maheux’s body was the first one recovered from the fire on Sunday evening. A second body was removed from the rubble on Tuesday but has not yet been identified.


Firefighters and police are still searching for at least five people who remain missing after a fire tore through the historic stone building early last Thursday.''
 
I can't even begin to fathom the horror the victims must have suffered through nor the grief their friends and families are experiencing now.

Does Airbnb not send someone out to inspect rental properties that they happily make money on from there site? It would be a simple things to do. Is Airbnb not held resposible when a tenant rents out a property instead of an owner? It's not the tenants property to rent. IMO Airbnb should be criminally charged to the hilt!
 
I can't even begin to fathom the horror the victims must have suffered through nor the grief their friends and families are experiencing now.

Since the fire hit around 5:30am, I'm assuming most of the victims were sleeping at the time. Hopefully some of them died in their sleep from smoke inhalation/CO poisoning.
 
Google translate

"The first victim of the fire at the Place d'Youville building in Old Montreal was identified by authorities on Wednesday. This is Camille Maheux, a 76-year-old photographer who has lived in the building for 30 years. The police also confirmed in the evening that they had extricated two other bodies from the rubble of the building."

At the end of the evening, Wednesday, agent Julien Lévesque, media relations officer at the SPVM, then confirmed that the search teams managed to locate a third as well as a fourth victim, “and to extract them from the building”. "The bodies of these victims have been entrusted to LSJML pathologists, so that their experts can carry out the identification work," said Mr. Lévesque, without going any further.

Recall that a second body had been located, then extricated from the building last Tuesday. However, his identity has not yet been confirmed. With the two bodies discovered on Wednesday evening, there are still three people missing among the rubble of the building."
...

"On Wednesday, Robert Laca, grandfather of Charlie Lacroix, one of the people still missing, spoke in front of the cameras. " It's always the same thing. It's hell. I am not able to accept that, because it is not normal that we have experienced a situation like that. There were things that happened and there will have to be a full investigation. […] For now, I just want her out of there, ”said the man, who shows up daily at the excavation site."

Fire in Old Montreal A first victim identified, two other bodies extricated from the rubble

 
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"As the search for victims of a five-alarm fire in Old Montreal stretched into its fifth day on Tuesday, friends and family members are getting frustrated with the pace of the investigation and lack of answers.

Mazhar Khan arrived in Montreal over the weekend in the hopes of getting access to the remains of his daughter, Saniya Khan, 32, but was told search efforts could be several days or longer.

He's desperate to see the search efforts move quicker into the devastating fire at the heritage building on Port Street, which firefighters have said will have to be taken down "stone by stone."

"My personal feeling is it's about bricks versus bodies. All that they care about, they're more concerned about saving the bricks," Khan told CTV News from Toronto.

"So what about bodies? What about people? That's my question. They don't care about the bodies … our children, they are our flesh and blood."
...
"Khan hasn't heard from either of the young women since Wednesday morning and both of their phones go straight to voice mail, he said.

"It's agonizing," he said from his friend's home in Toronto, where he is staying until he returns to Montreal.

"It's hurting also. Every moment we are thinking about her, we are talking about her. So at least we are supposed to have a body so that we can, you know, bury it in a decent manner. That's what she deserves. But we're not getting any answers to that, actually, when and how."

 

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Lengthy article.rbbm.
''Emile Benamor owns nine buildings across the island of Montreal in which dwellings listed as small as 60 square feet were or are advertised for rent on Facebook Marketplace. The listings of already rented dwellings, according to the site, include seven units in the historic building at Place d’Youville and du Port St. that was destroyed in the blaze last Thursday.''


''The current listings include rooms in a two-unit building owned by Benamor on St-Antoine St. W. in Westmount, where people who have inhabited it have come forward to denounce the living conditions.
The city of Westmount confirmed to the Montreal Gazette that “the city has intervened” with Benamor at the St-Antoine building, adding that “legal proceedings are currently underway.”


''Jesse Shallcross said he saw an ad for a room in the St-Antoine building on Facebook Marketplace in January and took it at $700 a month because he was temporarily stuck without a place to live after arriving from Toronto.
He wound up staying less than two weeks, he said. In the first week, Shallcross contends that Benamor entered the apartment in which he was renting a room at 8:30 a.m. He had entered unannounced with a plumber and using his own key, Shallcross said. He also contends he was threatened by the plumber, after which he and then Benamor phoned the police. Nothing came of it, however, because the officers who arrived allowed Benamor and the plumber to leave and refused to make a report, Shallcross said.''
 

QUEBEC CITY -
"Two representatives of multinational company Airbnb fled the cameras without saying a word as they left their meeting on Thursday with Quebec Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx.

They had been summoned to the minister's office in Quebec City after the fire in Old Montreal that left at least four people dead. Three people are still missing.

Some of those missing in the fire had rented their homes on Airbnb, even though such rentals are illegal in Old Montreal.

She said she was "more than determined" to tighten the screws on Airbnb. Her government has committed to revising the law by June 9 to require advertisers to display their tourism certification number.

"There are going to be legislative changes, which they will have to comply with," said Proulx, who did not appear at a press conference after her 30-minute meeting with Airbnb."


Google translate

Airbnb executives warned that Quebec will soon make them "accountable"


"The Quebec Minister of Tourism, Caroline Proulx, remains resolute in her desire to better regulate short-term housing rental platforms, after a short meeting organized with the Canadian leaders of Airbnb, who came out silent. , Thursday noon.

The Minister, for her part, announced at the beginning of the afternoon that she had taken advantage of the meeting to advise Airbnb of her intentions to revise the Law on tourist accommodation in order to "make accommodation platforms collaborative accountable".

Ms. Proulx insisted that the company “take its responsibilities and be more proactive than what has been done so far in this file,” said her firm in a short statement sent to the press by email."
...
"Chance or coincidence, "hundreds and hundreds of illegal ads" have disappeared from the platform since the tragedy, "particularly on the side of Old Montreal", underlined Ms. Proulx, Thursday morning."
 

"For the first time, the owner of a building in Old Montreal has responded to questions about the deadly fire — through his lawyer — addressing allegations that the building was unsafe."

About the room without windows where Charlie Lacroix was trapped in,
Bergerin says that building was up to code, was bought like that, city came to visit and building was OK.

About fire alarm that some survivors say did not went off,
According to Bergevin, all units were supposed to have smoke detectors, new central alarm system installed in 2019 and was checked morning of the fire

About illegal Airbnb units in the building (city bylaw),
Bergevin confirmed one tenant - Tariq Hasan - was renting multiple units in the building for Airbnb.
Owner Benamor was trying to shut him down and did not allowed Airbnb to continue.
 
Breaking

All unauthorized Airbnb listings in Quebec to be removed from app, company says


"A week after a deadly fire ravaged a building in Old Montreal that included units available for rent on Airbnb, the company says it plans to remove all Quebec listings that have not been authorized by the provincial government."

The fire renewed concerns about the proliferation of short-term rentals that are not registered with the Quebec government and, therefore, illegal."
(...)

"On Friday, Airbnb spokesperson Mattie Zazueta said the company sent a letter to Quebec's minister of tourism informing her of its plan to "remove existing listings" without a permit.

Doing so could mean wiping out the vast majority of Quebec listings on Airbnb.

In Montreal, for example, more than 90 per cent of short-term rental units listed on Airbnb are not authorized, according to an independent watchdog group, Inside Airbnb."
 
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''March 25, 2023 9:50PM EDT
Montreal police say a fifth body has been extracted from the rubble of a heritage building that caught fire nine days ago, leaving two others still missing.
Spokesperson Véronique Dubuc says the body was found and recovered on Saturday afternoon as fire services continued their search of the Old Montreal building.
Dubuc says the body has been turned over to a pathologist for identification as the search for others in the burned-out structure continues''
 

"Montreal police are currently investigating the fire. Once their probe is completed, Chief Coroner Pascale Descary will start her public inquiry, the minister said, adding that it could be months before the process begins.

Seven people died in the March 16 fire at the Place d'Youville building where many of the victims were staying in short-term rentals."

(6th and 7th bodies were found on March 27 and identifed on March 28)
 
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''The paper trail left by the Montreal fire department shows inspectors repeatedly contacted building owner Emile H. Benamor and carried out repeat visits to the 14-unit building at the corner of Place d’Youville and du Port St. in an attempt to have fire code violations corrected''.

''The same inspection visit revealed that in 2009 an apartment unit had been built in the common hallway of the third floor, in front of a window that offers escape to the building’s emergency staircase. The apartment, now blocking access to the emergency exit window, “prevents the occupants of the other apartments from having access to the second means of evacuation.”
 
Old Montreal fire that killed 7 was deliberately set, police say

"The fire that killed seven people in Old Montreal in March was intentionally set, Montreal police investigators now believe.

"We are now talking about a criminal investigation," Insp. David Shane said of the fire which tore through a heritage building on Place D'Youville.

Investigators from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal's major crimes unit have taken over the investigation, joining their colleagues on the arson squad who have been investigating the fire from the beginning. No arrests have been made, but investigators have located the site where the fire began and Shane said traces of an accelerant were detected."
(...)

"The night of the fire, there were 22 people in the building. Six of them escaped unharmed, nine were injured and seven died. Almost all of them had been staying in illegal Airbnbs.

The fire raised concerns about illegal rental units in Old Montreal and other areas popular with tourists."
 
This is actually very shocking and disturbing news, imo.

'Montreal police Insp. David Shane said during a press conference the investigation so far has revealed that “an accidental cause has been ruled out” and that an accelerant was used in the March 16 fire.''

“Our investigators have identified a zone where the fire began and I can confirm that traces of accelerant were found.”

Shane refused to identify the accelerant used in order to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation, but he added that the use of an accelerant explains why the fire managed to spread throughout the building.''

Twenty-two people were inside the building at the time of the five-alarm fire, and seven died: Camille Maheux, 76; Nathan Sears, 35; Dania Zafar, 31; Saniya Khan, 31; An Wu, 31; Charlie Lacroix, 18; and Walid Belkahla, 18. Another nine people were injured, and six escaped the building unharmed.

It took Montreal firefighters several days before they were able to locate the remains of all the people who perished.''
 

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